


Magic

by Somedeepmystery



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-12-23
Updated: 2005-12-23
Packaged: 2017-11-02 21:54:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/373743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somedeepmystery/pseuds/Somedeepmystery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is snow and River plays in it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magic

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I wrote this for [](http://rinalin.livejournal.com/profile)[**rinalin**](http://rinalin.livejournal.com/) as a challenge. Thanks to [](http://lady-pru.livejournal.com/profile)[**lady_pru**](http://lady-pru.livejournal.com/) for the edit and the fix of the ball/snowballs clarification... that was funny :p

\--- 

 

They had landed on Ita two days ago. Getting in touch with their contact was a complicated venture, since apparently the man wouldn’t’ve even trusted his own mother to give birth to him. So here they sat, following their instructions precisely, even though they weren’t really sure why. Luckily, for the most part, no one was really looking for them right now, so sitting still wasn't too dangerous.

Simon was sitting on the ramp of Serenity with Kaylee in front of him, leaning back against his chest, staring out at the landscape. The ramp was cold, and extremely dirty, but when Kaylee sighed and took hold of his hands wrapping them tighter around her he didn’t really care. He closed his eyes and rested his cheek against her hair.

“Oh!” At the little cry of joy from behind him, his eyes opened again and he turned slightly to see River padding slowly down the ramp her eyes fixed on the sky. He followed her gaze to see enormous fat flakes of snow falling from the grey sky. A wisp of breeze carried some of them in to fall around them and land on their clothing. River laughed as they clung to her long dark hair, and stuck out her tongue to try to catch them.

It wasn’t as if she’d never seen snow before, but it wasn’t incredibly common, and Simon smiled as she danced the rest of the way down the ramp, swinging her arms wide as she twirled, mouth open and turned up to the falling snow.

“It’s magic, Simon!” she said.

“No, mei emi it’s just frozen water that…” His speech halted as River stopped dancing and rolled her eyes at him.

“Scrooge,” she said, “Nothing but coal in your stockings.”

Kaylee laughed. “You tell him, Sweetie, don’t let the party pooper ruin your fun.”

“Fine! It’s magic…Oh the Wonder,” he said completely dead pan. Kaylee pinched him in reply and he laughed as he grabbed her hands away to prevent a repeat.

“Damn right,” River declared, and she spun around in the cascading white flakes that were growing thicker by the moment. She twirled and twirled before taking a moment to watch Kaylee and Simon kiss. She tipped her head to the side then clapped a hand over her mouth to cover a giggle as she bent down to the thin layer of snow that was covering the ground.

Kaylee’s lips were soft but insistent against Simon’s , and he was thinking how he never seemed to get used to that contradiction in her, the passionate demanding and the gentle surrender all in one moment. He was almost considering dragging her back into the ship, when something cold and wet and a bit hard, smacked into the side of his face. Icy snow ran down his neck, fell off his chin to land on Kaylee’s face as he pulled away in shock.

Kaylee, after a moment of stunned surprise tossed her head back and laughed.

“You are soooo going to pay for that,” Simon said darkly as he quickly released Kaylee and ran down the ramp after River, who screeched and moved away from him. Soon all three of them were romping through the mass, scooping up handfuls of snow and tossing them. It was all great fun and games until the Captain stepped out of the blur of white, and received one smack in the face.

Mal stopped suddenly and whipped the clinging white substance from his face. Zoë beside him actually almost laughed, which was still an extraordinarily rare thing. Jayne did laugh full out and heartily. That is until he was on the receiving end of and expertly thrown, and particularly hard packed snowball.

“Hey now!” he hollered and swung Vera off over his head and shoved her at Zoë to hold before stooping down to arm himself with snow. “Girl, I’m gonna show you how this is done.”

“No, no one is showing anybody anything. This snow is getting downright thick. We’re all getting back on the…” he was interrupted by another snowball in his face. River giggled and clapped her hands as Mal wiped more slop from his face and glared at her. “You are askin’ for it lil albatross, don’t make me shoot you, I’ve got enough bad luck.”

She ducked her head, and everyone turned and started to head inside, River with the poutiest face she could conjure. Mal just glared harder and pointed toward Serenity. River turned and followed her captain’s orders.

They had almost reached the ramp when ‘THUMP’, Jayne hollered “Hey!”  
Thump, thump, Simon and Kaylee grabbed the back of their heads, and everyone turned to see Mal with his arms full of snowballs. He tossed one at River, who caught it in midair. His eyes widened in surprise even though he shouldn’t have been. River tossed it up once and caught it.

“Oh,” she said smiling craftily, “Now you’ve started something.” She sang the last part, just before Jayne, Simon, and Kaylee dropped down to start scooping up snow. Mal started lobbing his snowballs at them, trying to make more at the same time, but they managed to get a few arm loads together, and River giggled as she yelled “Charge!”

Not one of them had an inch of dry on their entire bodies when they finally came inside and hour later to find Zoë, dry and toasty, sitting at the galley table with a mug of hot coffee clutched in her hands. They converged on the kitchen as one, clamoring for cups and hot liquid to warm them up. River hung back by the door watching them with a tiny smile. “Told you it was magic,” she said softly to herself, before venturing forward to join them.

 


End file.
